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March

Table of Contents March 2010

Discover Magazine's mission is to enable readers to lead richer lives by explaining and expanding their universe. Each month we bring you in depth information and analysis from various topics ranging from technology and space to the living world we live in.

FEATURES

The Real Rules for Time Travelers

by Sean Carroll

Time travel may in fact be possible, but it wouldn't work like in Back to the Future. (For one thing, you don't have worry about your parents failing to create you—you already exist.)

The Picasso of DNA

by Ed Regis

George Church is learning to redraw the genetic code. Medicine may soon look totally different—and so could Homo sapiens.

Who You Callin' "Bird Brain"?

by Charles Wohlforth

The amazing smarts of crows, jays, and other corvids are forcing scientists to rethink when and why intelligence evolved.

Ice Fishing For Neutrinos From the Middle of the Galaxy

by Anil Ananthaswamy

An intrepid reporter braves Siberia’s frozen Lake Baikal in search of the fundamental particles that could answer some of the deepest questions in physics.

Elephants Roaming America? A Big Idea for Rebooting Nature

by Andrew Curry

A new theory suggests that the thick forests that we think of as wild may actually be an effect of human settlement.

DEPARTMENTS

Big Idea

Your Brain in Real Time

by Amy Barth

Surgeons and scientists are teaming up to study living brains in action.

Numbers

Numbers: Railways, From Amtrak to TGV to China

by Jeremy Jacquot

Hot Science

The Best of Science Culture

Running on water, manufacturing depression, unwrapping mummies, and more

5 Questions

5 Questions for the Man Who Put Three D's in DNA

by Amy Barth

Erez Lieberman-Aiden's 3-D models of DNA are helping to explain the equally complicated and important molecule.

20 Things You Didn't Know About...

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Light

by Leeaundra Keany

The first light in the universe, the light used to push spacecraft, and the light produced by kicking the head of a walrus.

What Is This?

What is This? A Glowing, Cave-Dwelling Organism?

by Andrew Grant

Hint: It's actually a lot closer to home than some exotic cave.

Discover Q&A

The Dr. Who Drank Infectious Broth, Gave Himself an Ulcer, and Solved a Medical Mystery

by Pamela Weintraub

The medical elite thought they knew what caused ulcers and stomach cancer. But they were wrong—and did not want to hear the answer that was right.

The Brain

The Brain: Look Deep Into the Mind's Eye

by Carl Zimmer

We take visual imagination for granted. But the blank inner world of a patient called MX demonstrates the rich neural processes needed to create the images in our heads.

Destination Science

Destination Science: The Pretty, Desolate Spot Where the Nuclear Age Began

by Leeaundra Keany

The Trinity Site in New Mexico is safer than you'd think, and you have to look hard to see the signs of its momentous place in history.

Vital Signs

Vital Signs: There's Hyperactivity...and There's Hyperactivity

by Mark Cohen

Most 3-year-olds are hyperactive sometimes. But some cases are a sign of something more serious going on.